Flores Island

The Greater Sundas Islands include Borneo, Java (including the small island of Madura), Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Belitung. The Lesser Sundas (renamed Nusa Tenggara in 1954) are all Indonesian. They include Bali, Lombok, Flores, Sumba, Sumbawa, and Timor. Flores Island, where the new species, Homo floresiensis, was discovered, is located in eastern Indonesia and is heavily wooded, rugged, and mountainous. Homo floresiensis may have evolved from populations of Homo erectus that migrated by boat to Flores island from Java as long as 800,000 years ago.